A while back I wrote about Meosphere, a Utah-based social networking site that uses lists to build a picture/profile of users, to keep track of and to share their life experiences. One can also use these checklists as a to-do life list. For example, one list might ask you which international airports you’ve been through, once you’ve checked off the 5 or 10 airports you’ve been through you might realize that you’d like to visit more airports (I know that is a weird example, but it takes all kinds to make the world go ’round). The cool thing about Meosphere is that you use the list on the site as your checklist of sorts to track your progress and find other cool things you didn’t yet have on your life list.

Well, in the business world I believe it’s easy to come up with problems and criticisms, what really takes brain power is coming up with solutions. Eric Eliason, Meosphere’s founder and CEO, and his team have got that covered, they’re holding a contest to see who, if given $10,000, can come up with the most creative way to expand his or her meosphere (the plan has to be in 20 words or less). Interested? You can get more details about the contest and enter it here.

My Two Cents: If given $10,000 I’d rent a convertible and cruise Route 66 with my dad, taking in all the sites, eats and just the experience of this classic American hot rod icon.

• It confirms that the things we search for most are actually on the Internet–online services;
• It confirms that consumers want Web access to traditional brick and mortar stores;
• It shows that people are looking for interaction online;
• It may be proof that social networking sites are more than a trend;
• It proves that Yahoo! is more searched than Google–my bet is people are “Googleing” Yahoo!, what an irony.

Here’s the top ten list according to Hitwise:

1. MySpace
2. ebay
3. Yahoo!
4. Mapquest
5. craigslist
6. WalMart
7. Google
8. Target
9. match.com
10. Bank of America

My Two Cents: Does this list represent anything significant? To some degree, I would say yes. The survey was based on data from 10 million Internet users, and although that is a statistically significant number, to be sure we would need to compare lists over the years. At the very least, this list serves as great case studies or best practices for anyone who wants to become successful on the Internet.

The previous three commercials are funny to me. I think a lot of the humor comes because of what is being portrayed combined with Peyton’s down-to-earth personality. (Here is a clip that shows behind the scenes of the final Peyton Manning commercial, watch it and see how they let Peyton be himself.)

My Two Cents: I think that although we will continue to have professional ad agencies, for one reason or another, we, the users, will become more of a presence in the advertising world. In reality, user-generated videos are just an evolution of letting the audience choose what content is in a commercial.

No one is exempt from change; this can be a great threat or strength to any organization. The challenge for the PR Pro is how to deal with change. The advantage depends on the situation; if, for example, you are trying to introduce a new way to travel (read: Segway), you may find some resistance to change, for obvious reasons–price point, tradition, feasibility. On the other hand, if you are introducing a new, less expensive type of gasoline, you will probably have the upper hand from a PR perspective.

The savvy–and probably successful–PR Pro will know how to leverage the message and strategy to use change to his or her advantage. Knowledge and familiarity of key publics, perspective, as well as a handle on history will probably help you most. As an example, when dealing with people, there are some things that just do not change. For one, disclosure and honesty are always good ways to garner support or understanding from key publics, everyone is very familiar with the Johnson & Johnson Tylenol crisis and you probably know why it was considered a landmark PR case study–if not, you might want to catch up.

Even if you’re the PR Director for Google right now, you can leverage your message correctly to use change to your advantage. Talk about how Google has been a catalyst for change and innovation, talk about what Google is doing to stay up with the trends and times. Bottom line: the good PR Pro will always look for ways to keep a good PR message out there. With the speed of information exchange at an all-time high, today it is better said: no news is bad news! You have to keep your publics informed or they’ll turn elsewhere for that info.

My Two Cents: Look at change as an opportunity to be creative, innovative. Look at it as a chance to shine, the more you do, the more successful you’ll be.

A number of people of have commented on using Digg. Read Greg Hartnett’s post and comments; Steve Rubel’s thoughts and responses; another post here and here.

My Two Cents: I recently had a good friend Digg a news release about a client. At first I felt this was a misuse of Digg, but after further thought, I think to Digg one’s own release is just a step beyond putting the Digg link on the release page. I mean, with so many news sources on the net, why not cut through the clutter and get the story in the communications channel? Where I see it being a problem is if the entire agency and client Diggs the article and creates a pseudo-popularity and I think crosses a line. What are your thoughts?

My co-worker had an idea for an iPod accessory. What is the use of a remote to control the music played on your iPod if you can’t see the songs on the iPod? Maybe you’re like me and don’t want to listen to every song in the playlist and like to bounce from playlist to playlist. As you can see the remote operation doesn’t do me much good since my eyesight isn’t good enough to see the iPod screen 10 feet away–even if I could control the playlist selection from a distance. So my co-worker’s idea is to have an accessory that attaches to the iPod, making the iPod the remote control in and of itself. I would have the ability to scroll through my playlists and songs and then when I hit play, it would transmit the music to the stereo. So, if there are any iPod R&D people out there, please see what you can do.

What kind of things would you want your iPod to do?

What do you think, what’s Apple’s next big leap in the iPod market? Is cell phone where they’re headed?

My Two Cents: I have to agree with one of the commentors, the real winner in this Web-based battle is the consumer.

How about you, are you or your company going to benefit from Google’s move?